Adam Hochberg

When Tulsa police arrested two men Sunday in connection with a shooting spree that targeted African-Americans, much of the media drew attention to a racist Facebook post apparently written by one of the suspects. But CNN’s unusually explicit on-air description of the post raised eyebrows and renewed a debate about how journalists report on hateful speech.

The post was written by murder suspect Jake England, who along with his roommate confessed to an apparently random series of shootings that left three people dead and two wounded. On Facebook, England lamented the violent death of his own father two years ago and referred to his father’s killer with a vulgar adjective and a racial slur.

“There was a Facebook posting made just the other day,” CNN correspondent Susan Candiotti said Sunday, as she reported live from Tulsa. Read more

Five states will hold presidential caucuses in the opening weeks of 2012. But while the events likely will play an important role in deciding the Republican presidential nominee, many journalists will be prohibited by their employers from participating.

Unlike in a primary election, where voters cast secret ballots, caucus participants often publicly announce their candidate preferences. While the caucus procedure differs significantly from state to state, one common model requires supporters of each candidate to form groups in separate corners of a large room, then try to recruit members of rival groups.

“In a caucus you don’t just go show up and vote,” said Editor Lyle Muller of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette, whose journalists are banned from participating in the state’s Jan. 3 caucuses. Read more

The Internal Revenue Service says it will re-evaluate an initiative that encourages organizations and volunteer tax preparers to send canned letters to the editors of their local newspapers. An IRS Web page contains sample letters promoting the earned income tax credit and volunteer tax assistance sites. It instructs users to “just copy and paste” a letter onto their letterhead, sign their own name, and send it to a newspaper.

“I think this is going a little too far,” conceded IRS Communications Director Terry Lemons when he was alerted to the Web page.“This whole business of copy-and-pasting; we shouldn’t be doing that.”

Lemons said the agency will “make some adjustments” in the program. Read more

News organizations from around the country are using social media to locate witnesses and obtain interviews and photos of today’s campus shooting at Virginia Tech. “Call our newsroom if you know anyone that goes to Virginia Tech,” tweeted Buffalo, New York television station WKBW. “Hey #vatech – looking to speak & get updates from students on campus,” wrote CBS News producer Joe Danielewicz. Meanwhile, the media pounced on a Flickr page of photos from the photo editor of the student newspaper, the Collegiate Times.The images of the crime scene and of police activity attracted requests for republication rights from CNN, the New York Post, NPR, Australia’s News Limited, and other news organizations. (The newspaper eventually posted contact information for media seeking reuse rights.) Read more

Forbes.com
Defenders of the Oregon blogger who was found guilty in a $2.5 million defamation suit “have not dug deeply enough,” writes Kashmir Hill at Forbes.com. While the blogger, Crystal Cox, promoted herself as an “investigative journalist,” Hill notes that Cox behaved more like somebody whose goal was to destroy the reputation of her target, an investment firm called Obsidian Financial Group. Cox started several websites with names like “obsidianfinancesucks.com” and “realestatehoax.com.”

The Clarion-Ledger | WAPT-TV
Jackson, Miss. television station WAPT backed away from a report that Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen “is close to signing a deal to replace Joe Paterno at Penn State.” Mullen — who says Penn State hasn’t contacted him — called the WAPT story, “the most irresponsible reporting that I’ve ever heard of.” In an interview with the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, WAPT sports reporter Ray Coleman said that a source told him Penn State would announce Mullen’s hiring today. The station has removed Coleman’s original report from its website and replaced it with a story that calls the “rumor” untrue. A MSU spokesman tweeted that Coleman apologized to school officials.|| Earlier:No penalty for reporting on rumors about NFL draft prospectsRead more

But the cranberry sauce recipe she chose for Thanksgiving this year comes from an anonymous online source whom she knows only as “Leeza.”

Like many amateur chefs, my wife nowadays is more likely to seek out meal ideas from her iPad than her cookbooks. And typically, she relies on popular websites like Allrecipes.com or Food.com which allow her fellow home chefs to submit recipes — as well as review, comment on, and even alter those submitted by others.

The sites — which combine elements of crowdsourcing, social media, and an old-fashioned recipe swap — are popular destinations on the Web. Read more